Botanical Haven
by Sulcal
Summary: AmazonTurks' Operation: Assassination ficverse. His flat near between Edge and Old Midgar has become something of Magni's safe place. OCcentric, rated for language oneshot.


Notes: I totally wrote this kinda of on a whim after talking to KD. (shrug) Don't ask me why, but it felt good to get it out. It's a spin-off drabble for AmazonTurk's fic Operation: Assassination. Go! Read it! It's fun! Hurry for OCs! This might still have some unfixed grammar/spelling errors.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything FF7 related. I'm borrowing those (and Magni from KD Zeal), but I promise I'll return 'em. But Wei is mine, thanks!

Botanical Haven

The small, standard issue black sedan slid easily and smoothly into the parking space across the street. She didn't really worry about it too much-- she didn't park in a tow away zone, but Turks generally didn't need to worry about much, considering, somehow, people just seemed to _know_. The job came with a lot of leverage, but, in a lot of ways, the job itself often outweighed the perks. And Magni slid out of the drivers seat, sighing at the sight of the familiar sight of the towering building. A sign, "Edge of Paradise Flats", in a shining almost bronze metal stood in the front of the hulking grey mass of the whole eighteen-stories towering out and over. It was in an odd sort of neighborhood; not quite in the ghetto, but not quite in the city itself, just barely bordering Old Midgar. This time of night, it always seemed more bleak than anything else. Like it was trying to hide in the much taller buildings surrounding it. New, but with an old, old feel to it...

This time of December always was cold, even more so now without the pollution and mako eating up everything.

Magni stood beside the sedan for a moment, hand on the hood, car keys in the other and frowning for a moment. Sure, it was late, and maybe she should have called...? No, no, it was fine. She was tired, if nothing else.

So the brunette woman simply closed the door after gathering her bag and locked it before heading up and into Edge of Paradise Flat's smooth concrete walkway from the street, boots clicking in the quiet of it all, the bitter wind blowing half-melted snow out into the air in thick swirls. Who would bother to take the time to shovel know out of the walk way?

Inside was sparsely decorated. Simple. Pale in colors and dimly lit, just as quiet. But it seemed slightly expensive, with they way that it was. She remembered here rather well, and he feet carried her --just like many times before-- up the first flight of simple stairs and to one of two elevators. One dinged open, a business woman heading out, checking her watch, eyes Magni in her thick trench coat and heavy winter wear-- heavy even for Edge.

Magni ignored her as she moved to the elevator. No music this time. Good. Her gloved finger pressed the '7' button--

It'd become something of a routine, by now.

She still came by, and he let her, and it was good. Before Magni even went to file in a mission report, late on missions, gone for weeks on end sometimes, she would find herself here where the elevators don't always have music and the place is eerily silent. Peaceful ins some ways, unnerving if one wasn't already accustomed to it. Business folk lived here. Apartments for show and not for living. A workaholic's heaven.

The elevator doors dings open again, and she moved, taking a right, down a ways, another right, and a quick, short left to the 723B door.

Magni paused for the whole a fraction of a second before her rapped gloved knuckles sharply on the door, not that she needed to. They keypad next to it had her hand print registered. Had for a while now. It made her wonder how long Wei Yao had trusted her. From their first date? Or after that? Did it matter now?

The knock seemed strangely deafening in the silence.

A few seconds passed before the door hissed open, automatic like any other, and Wei was leaning in the door way like it was the most natural thing in the world.

It was always a treat to see him out of his suit these days, which was becoming slowly more rare with Tseng pelting him with more missions. No one took quite as many assassination missions as Wei did these days. And there he was, hair slightly mussed, eyes a strangely diffused black-ish glow, dressed in a t-shirt with some band Magni had never heard of (which hung of a frame that was getting a little too thin, now) and torn jeans.

Wei folded his arms over his slender chest for a moment, looked at her, and Magni nodded her greetings before he stood up straight to let her inside his apartment.

His apartment was something of an oddity for a Turk, in a way. Or, at the least, for someone of the Wutaiian culture.The whole thing was like a garden; plants of all sorts hanging from shelves and in vases and on hooks, making the air in it warm and humid in a sense. The botanical world was trying to take over . Reaching, green and distractfully colorful sometimes, matching the black leather furniture that Magni was sure someone else had picked out (it always seemed out of place when she walked in). The walls and wide windows-with-a-view were the only thing containing this far-fetched world of growing green things. It smelled almost pungent in a good way.

It was beautiful.

Magni found herself taking a relaxing breath when the door hissed closed and Wei was behind her, simply there. He rested his chin on her shoulder, pulling at her coat to take it.

"Welcome back."

Magni frowned. "Yeah..."

"Long mission?"

Her coat was being tossed onto a plush armchair. It took a moment to register that the news was on. Wei was reaching for the clicker-- Magni's hand stopped him.

He looked at her. "Hm?"

She shrugged. "The noise. Leave it?"

"Sure," he said and ran a tanned hand through his hair. "Sure. Want some tea? It's all I've got around here."

Magni was shrugging out of her blazer that had been under the coat, sighing at the warmth and trudging across white-grey tiled floor to the open kitchen. A few knick-knacks rested around, but Wei was like Tseng in that area, probably why they got along so well. Functional, with little personality to it.

There was already a kettle going on the stove, boiling slowly. Magni pulled a stool up over to the counter and raised a brow at the way the blinds were left open. she jerked a thumb over at the wide, floor to ceiling windows.

"What's with that? You never liked looking at Old Midgar before..."

Wei shrugged as he bustled about. The kind of man that never rested. He was grabbing two mugs from the cabinets. "Nothing, really," he said, frowning. "Tseng-sama had me on a short mission earlier. Got back yesterday. How did yours go?"

They were different around each other. Magni... well, Magni felt less like a puppet on strings around him, and Wei was a bit more at ease, more bland in a sense. Wound up, yet relaxed. Like tension leaving a twisted up rubber band for the both of them.

Mission after long mission, she found herself here, drinking bittersweet oolong tea and eating whatever Wei threw together in the spur of the moment.

"Tiring. Some wacko playing at tourist for some secret meeting or other. Some of the older regime Rufus' dad had are trying to pull itself together."

"Hm. Icicle. Nasty place to be."

"How come you didn't go? I thought you were looking for some time away from your dad."

"Not really. Being that close to Crater always made me kind of sick..." Wei leaned over the sink, pulling a couple of forks from the dish drainer near the sink and handing a bowl full of homemade Wutaiian cuisine-- the man was a traditionalist in many aspects.

Magni licked her lips slightly, accepting the food and sweetened tea when it was finished with an inward sigh. "This makes my day, you know."

He flashed a grin, a white slash of teeth as he poured some of the seasoned rice and chicken into his own dish, plopping down next to the brunette. "Really now?"

"Yeah, actually. You'd be surprised how crappy the food up north is. Rations aren't any fun, either."

"I'm making New Year's yakisouba this year. Want me to save you some?"

"Not going to be too spicy like your dad's batch, is it?" Magni asked around a mouthful of food.

Outside, the snow was starting to fall more solidly, more furiously. The gaping wound of Midgar was peeking out like an empty eye socket from the seventh story view. Magni frowned around the tip of her fork. Usually, Wei didn't seem this disconnected, and she eyed the man a little more closely.

"Hey..." she began, face a careful mix. "You're still not upset about people missing your birthday, are you? Twenty-eight isn't that bad."

"Not really." Wei shrugged. "You know how those missions get sometimes."

Magni squinted. "You mean the fuck-'em-and-kill-'em kind? Everyone gets them. What? Did you run into a really bad one this time?"

"Kinda," the man responded, his eyes were starting to get that bright mako-brown edge to them. "Guy had a thing for SOLDIER blood. It was kind of creepy." He made a face at the memory, feet kicking out to rest at the foot bar installed at the bottom of the counter, moving to sip at his tea.

Then, with a quick flash of recognition, he was diving for the pile of mail on the far end, digging through it until he produced a fresh, clean white envelope with Rufus' handwriting scrawled across it.

"Here," he said, grinning as she rolled her eyes at him and took it from him in her fork-free hand. "I was asked to give it to you. He's catching onto us."

"We aren't technically dating."

"Us?"

"Yeah."

Wei continued to eat and drink his own tea and pointedly ignoring the fact of it.

"Jealous?" Magni asked with a faint grin of her own, the facial expression out of reflex more than anything.

"And what if I was?"

"Then I'd have to say that the Boss writes my check."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't give me that. He still gives me the evil eye."

"Rufus?"

Wei stretched again, shoveling the last it of his food into his mouth, the news spouting on about the weather and the latest of WRO's work in the background. He chewed thoughtfully before nodding, almost as if he had to think about it. "Yeah," he said after he swallowed. "Kind of like if I weren't an employee, he'd make me disappear."

They half-laughed, half-chortled, and Magni settled for rinsing the dishes. Wei kept his apartment clean for the most part, save for the wayward sock or shirt that found its way around. Mugs and dishes clean, Wei tugged her towards the couch, laying a soft kiss along the side of her forehead.

Magni raise a brow.

He shrugged with one of his grins; they always did look nice on him. Better than the anger that had been there when she first met him. Magni supposed she'd been a tad angry, too, those several months before. Had it honestly been such a short amount of time?

"Hey, I'm not like Reno. I don't think I need two guys fighting over me the way Ak and Niki do over that idiot," she said when her knees hit the back of the couch and they collapsed in a comfortable heap in front of the somewhat new television set, the remote slipping of the arm of it. Magni felt perfectly fine while trying to kick off her shoes, the half-Wutaiian's weight half on her and half against the couch, her face nuzzled a little into the crook of a thin shoulder. "You've lost a lot of weight."

He shrugged a little, curling in, shifting, helping her pull off her left shoe, her toes sneaking under him for warmth. "I'm going back onto that high-protein diet again. I hate the stuff the doc gives me, though. Tastes like green tea that was left to boil too long."

"Gross!" Magni made a slight face. She didn't like green tea entirely. Not the potent stuff N.C. and Tseng liked. "You eat more than the kids and don't gain a thing."

"It's in the genes."

Magni sighed, hand dropping to click to another channel. Loveless, the recent remake of the play into a movie was on, mid-way. She never really did like TV. Wei hummed something and brushed her hair aside.

"I would, you know."

Magni turned her head, brown eyes regarding Wei's own. The anxiety was showing, which was odd, at least now, when he was smiling against her face. He brushed her somewhat wild hair aside once more, teeth flashing again.

"Would what?"

"Be your secondary. He knows, you know. You're really beautiful. He likes you."

"Rufus?"

"Yeah. But I don't mind. I like it when you're here."

"Anyone ever tell you you're _way_ to honest?"

Another grin, and he was settling again and she sighed, shaking her head. She was warm now, squished between the couch and Wei and smelling the pungent scent of botanical life.

"I really am gonna turn out like Reno, huh?" Magni asked with a flat look. Her green eyes were drooping. More tired than she thought. It was good.

"I'm not fighting over anything. The boss would win on that one. Like you said, he writes the checks."

Magni paused with a thought, blinking, turning from the woman on TV to the pale ceiling and the edges of green in her vision. "You, Wei? Talking about how you feel for the first time?" He snorted in her ear. "Think he'd hate it? Keeps giving you the evil eye, right?"

"Maybe. But he likes you."

Magni shrugged.

This place, the view, the food, Wei, those things had become, in a sense, her security blanket. And she supposed she didn't mind this chance to simply... be _simple_, to not have to worry about anything or having to be anyone. Wei doesn't expect much, and although Rufus doesn't, either, it was just different. And if Wei turned up on her doorstep, which he does sometimes, wounded on occasions because he hates doctors, Magni would be damned if she turned him away. It was a needy sort of feeling, really. Like a warmth, maybe. A good thing and a bad thing. Because maybe it was the way she didn't have to _pretend_ around Wei and didn't need to _worry_ around Rufus, even if Rufus doesn't like sharing. She doesn't have to think about her loses that brought her here, because they have loses. Magni liked it here. It beat out being alone at home, procrastinating on paperwork.

And if that makes her kind of like Reno, she supposed she didn't really mind that all to much. Even if it wasn't quite the same thing.


End file.
